Broken Base: The film has been criticised for its unrealistic portrayal of rock climbing. One example is the feature of the bolt-gun which fires bolts directly into rock, forgoing the usual rock-drilling and bolt-hammering used in rock-climbing. This ignores certain material properties of rock that should cause the bolt-gun's impact site to shatter and explode with flaky projectiles. The bolt gun is considered the most serious of the film's technical inaccuracies. Further examples are showing athletic moves, which have no use in real climbing, or free soloing with – then also completely useless – gear.

Catharsis Factor: Considering what a bunch of murdering assholes they all are, it's very satisfying to see Qualen's gang get what's coming to them.

Complete Monster: Eric Qualen is an ex-federal agent turned international terrorist who attempts to steal $100 million, leading to the deaths of three agents and one pilot, and has no problem killing anyone who stands in his way, even his own men. After he loses the three cases full of money and his plane crashes, he takes the mountain guides Gabriel "Gabe" Walker and his friend Hal Tucker as hostages so they can help him find the cases. When he and his henchmen locate the first case, Qualen takes Walker's coat off to make sure he won't escape, thus making him almost freeze to death. He eventually decides to kill him anyway once he comes back. When two teenagers spot him, Qualen has his men murder them, simply commenting in a sadistic tone "Sue me" when Tucker calls him out. Qualen later kills his lover, informing her that true love is sacrifice. He plans on killing Tucker when he is no longer needed and later kidnaps Walker's girlfriend Jesse, threatening to drop her in the ravines if Walker won't give him the case. During the final fight on the helicopter, hanging on a deep chasm, Qualen has a Villainous Breakdown and attempts to make the helicopter fall, taking Walker with him.

Evil Is Cool: The villains are all a Hate Sink gang for their cruelty and general mean-spiritedness, but there are some exceptions despite also being despicable:

Kynette, for being the most intimidating and formidable henchman out of Qualen's group.

Delmar, basically due his actor Craig Fairbrass receiving Retroactive Recognition for his later voice acting in the Call of Duty game franchise and comparisons made by some viewers between Delmar and the games' characters who are all portrayed by Fairbrass, as well as his Hidden Depths as an ex-soccer player in which it contributes to his Curb-Stomp Battle against his hostage Tucker.

Fridge Logic: While providing the movie with enough mooks for Walker to take down one by one, you have to wonder why Qualen needed at least five heavily armed mercenaries who's sole role during the airplane heist would have been nothing but to sit around if it had gone according to plan.

Harsher in Hindsight: Craig Fairbrass plays Delmar who guns down a friend of a protagonist, much to the latter's devastation and even crying out a Big "NO!". Then in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, rather then playing the provoker again, Fairbrass is on the receiving end of it this time, as Fairbrass portrays Ghost who is Bash Brothers with Roach, who is then gunned down in front of Ghost, who then gives out a Big "NO!" in response before being killed him not long after, ironically the same way Delmar is killed after causing a tragedy, a high caliber gunshot wound to the chest on a mountain.

Craig Fairbrass' character killing a character named Frank is ironic, considering Fairbrass previously played a character with the same first name on first season of the TV show Prime Suspect.

It can also be considered ironic to see Tucker vs. Delmar in a showdown scene, since the actors who played the aforementioned characters, Michael Rooker and Craig Fairbrass, would both later play The Lancer in the Call of Duty franchise. So otherwise, this scene can be viewed as Mike Harper vs. Gaz/Ghost/Wallcroft or game production studio-wise, a Treyarch mo-cap actor vs. an Infinity Ward voice actor.

Fairbrass plays a character, which was part of his early typecasting at the time with For Queen and Country and the television show Prime Suspect being other examples, who is a Politically Incorrect Villain who hates Scary Black Man Kynette's guts and lashes out racial slurs against him like "boy" and "black bastard." Then in 2016, Fairbrass would later make a cameo appearance in the Call of Duty franchise's latest installment Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare at the first level as a black NPC ally character named Tee, ironic much.

Speaking of Frank, Rex Linn and Craig Fairbrass, who both played two of the villains, both played police detectives with the first name Frank on crime drama television shows (Fairbrass played DI Frank Burkin on Prime Suspect, while Linn would later be renowned for his role as Det. Frank Tripp on CSI: Miami).

Qualen comments to Kristel, who was planting a C4 booby trap, that she would make a good wife one day, which is funny as Kristel's actress Caroline Goodall had in fact played a good wife to The Hero in Steven Spielberg's flicks Hook and Schindler's List (which the latter was released the same year as this film).

John Lithgow in this movie approached his villainous character as a Fake Brit and as a result earned a Razzie nomination for his fake accent, then cut to The Crown (2016), where Lithgow once again plays a Fake Brit as Winston Churchill and earned acclaim and numerous accolades including a Golden Globe nomination and an Emmy.

When bickering with Delmar, Kynette threatens him with his hunting knife and does a pose that is similar to a battle pose of another Scary Black Man Erik Stevens (played by Michael B. Jordan) when he is surrounded by his opponents in Black Panther.

Iron Woobie: Walker, he is overcome with grief from his failure to save his best friend's girlfriend, captured by Qualen's goons who stripped him of his jacket and bolt gun that left him vulnerable to the cold and finds himself a living target for the villains to hunt down.

Tucker, as he blames Walker for his failure to save Sarah, which is understandable as Sarah was Tucker's girlfriend and Tucker loves her so, as most of his anger towards Walker is out of grief and the fact he had to bear witness first hand Sarah's death and Walker's inability to save her. He becomes more of a Butt-Monkey later in the film when is forced to be a guide for Qualen's posse, bullied around, Forced to Watch them kill two of his colleagues that he later protested against before being on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown given by one of Qualen's goons.

Love to Hate: While most of the Moral Event Horizon actions and Jerkass behaviors of the terrorists fall into a Hate Sink (especially when it comes to killing off a Plucky Comic Relief and a beloved Cool Old Guy or just being outright mean-spirited towards their enemies and each other), you got to admit, the acting of Leon and Craig Fairbrass comes off as somewhat badass when it comes to playing the Co-Dragons, from Kynette's martial arts-laden No-Holds-Barred Beatdown given to juggernaut Stallone, to Fairbrass' soccer game wisecracks when torturing Tucker to give him a unique, slow and agonizing death. Even though they meant to be a Hate Sink as the rest of their posse, they also border on Evil Is Cool, especially the presence of Craig Fairbrass.

What An Idiot: Seriously, Kynette and Delmar both pretty much had their victories over the heroes in the bag after curb stomping both Gabe and Hal with relative ease, and they probably would have won if they both hadn't been so cocky just to act like menacing Slasher Movie villains and to outright show off being badasses and that Evil Is Cool. Or if, you know, they had just killed Gabe and Hal right away instead of dragging it out with the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Instead both fall victim to Bond Villain Stupidity - Kynette shoots his mouth off about how he'll torment Gabe's girlfriend before killing her and Delmar just pointlessly drags out Hal's beating by narrating all his moves like a sports announcer. The results? An enraged Gabe grabs Kynette by the balls and impales him on a stalactite, while Hal stabs Delmar in the leg and then shoots the bastard with his own gun.

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